I got the bug. Designed and built my own. Total cost $5.02. Dark Cherry hardwood.
I’m very happy with how it turned out, and now I wonder if I want to use it or seal it and display it.
Before you ask in the last picture in the right upper corner is my duck/duck. In order to get behind the bar and if you are over 6’ tall you better duck.
Nice paddle except for one thing cherry wood contains cyanic compounds :shock:
This can leach into the water I would not use it just hang it on the wall. Soft maple will decompose over time hard maple is OK and will last also walnut is a very excellent wood to use but it is expensive.
I make the mash paddles for all of the NB stores ( not available in the catalog or on line ) and I use Ash.
Ash is what canoe oars and baseball bats, tool handles and food bowls are made from.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. My understanding is that the cyanic compounds are contained in the pit of the fruit, and that it needs to be ground and boiled to become cyanide. I used this wood because I really liked the color and the grain, but other than that I really did not know anything more than it was a hard wood.
I personaly would not use it but you sure can just do a little checking on what I was saying about the wood.
I agree it is a beautiful wood but so are some other hard woods.
If I’m not mistaken…and I could very well be, but I think there are alot of wooden spoons, salad stuff, etc made from Cherry.
Not sure the chemistry behind wood leeching but for sure the tried and true beech, ash, maple are the most stable for “wet” uses and generally accepted as food safe.
Olive has a grain similar to cherry and is used alot in the “kithen”.
[quote=“chuck”]Nice paddle except for one thing cherry wood contains cyanic compounds :shock:
This can leach into the water I would not use it just hang it on the wall. Soft maple will decompose over time hard maple is OK and will last also walnut is a very excellent wood to use but it is expensive.
I make the mash paddles for all of the NB stores ( not available in the catalog or on line ) and I use Ash.
Ash is what canoe oars and baseball bats, tool handles and food bowls are made from.[/quote]
I have one of those paddles and I love it! Good job chuck!
/armchair scientist
I would not expect cyanic compounds (or most any others, for that matter) to leach in a uniform pattern; I would expect, instead, that the majority of the available compounds would leach out in a fashion akin to radioactive isotope degradation. In other words, by use 5-6, you’re going to have abare fraction of the available cyanic compounds leaching compared to use 1, but you’re still likely to get a non-zero amount of leachate in every use.
As I’m not actually a toxicologist, I can’t discuss the level of toxicity with respect to HCN, but it’s probably not worth risking it. Keep it as a decoration, and spend another $5 to do it with a food safe wood.
Why not just put a finish on the thing and be done. It is not like you are soaking it in the mash overnight.
I contacted the UW Madison forestry and forestry products school. "Cyanic compounds are present in the leaves,the bark, and the pits. The quantities are minimal in those portions and needs to be processed, extracted, and refined. For a mash paddle made out of the wood they see no problem and I’m going to use it until my neighbors start dropping.
PS. Everything else I’ve read says not to finish it.
[quote=“flytyer”]
PS. Everything else I’ve read says not to finish it.[/quote]
In general or for that particular wood. If the answer you got from the University were different, I guess you could choose between the lesser of two evils.
I have read that finishes will leach off flavors into your wort. After my first comp. I have enough problems with my beer to add varnish or polyurethane to the mix.
Like I said, lessor of two evils. Either finish leaching off flavors or wood leaching killer compounds. Take your pick 
I bet there are finishes that would work, but I am not going to push that route.
Nothing wrong with cherry wood. It’s great to smoke barbecue with. It won’t leach off flavored. Rub it with mineral oil to seal it. That is the method for wooden utensils and cutting boards.
Check out “no finish” finish. Starting with tight grain wood, you progressively sand from 80 grit to 2500. Lightly dampen between sandings to raise the grain,
then burnish with a brown paper bag to polish. It’s time consuming, but you end up with glass like finish. If it starts to dull, you just polish back up.
